Citizen Times: NC death penatly study: Race sways justice

Just in time for the first anniversary of the Racial Justice Act, Sociology professor Michael Radelet and Criminology professor Glenn Pierce have completed a study on just under 15,000 homicide cases paying particular head to the victim’s race. The study which will be published in North Carolina Law Review next year claims that a defendant convicted of first degree murder of a white person is almost three times more likely to be sentenced to death in North Carolina.

Under the Racial Justice Act, death row inmates can utilize this study along with others, such as a recently completed study on North Carolina juror’s race and their role in death sentences, to prove a racial bias in North Carolina courts and then eliminate death penalty as a sentence, rather to receive a max of life without parole. In addition NC death row inmates can invoke these studies and the Racial Justice Act post-fact to remove themselves from death row, where there has been a moratorium for the last three years.